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S.E.R.E.
The shooting and killing branch of CorpGov, a.k.a. the armies, navies, and air-forces of the industrialized nations, spend lots of cash teaching their robo-soldiers how to survive if cut off from their unit and stranded behind enemy lines. We as humans fighting this nasty machine have slowly and stealthily had our homes occupied and are currently all living in occupied territory. This whole book is your starting point to train you to live by your wits but when the bust finally comes down and you are being chased, caught, or imprisoned hopefully some of this information will help. For further advice on this situation, why not just use the Government's own S.E.R.E manual? It is totally free upon request and can be found online here: https://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/csf/docused/Handbook.pdf (LINK BROKEN try https://www.netc.navy.mil/centers/csf/CoursesOffered.aspx?ID=15 instead) This is excellent book for learning how to cross patrolled areas like national borders, forage and prepare foods and medicinal plants, and improvised first aid when the hospital is not an option. The Bust Decision process - Fight or Flight This is much harder than it may seem. Truth be told, nobody wants to be in cuffs or detained. The important thing, however, is to keep your cool. Quite often, if you are nabbed for a small crime (shoplifting, minor drug possession, protests, etc.) it would be in your best interest to just let the pigs have their way with you. Once you have been detained and you escape, you can be charged with resisting or evading arrest (a felony in most areas). Furthermore, small crimes usually involve no more than a day or two in the joint, a much better option than being re-nabbed a few years later and going back to the joint for a year or two. Keep track if you have outstanding warrants or are wanted, the most common way major catches are made is at a traffic stop or for petty crimes. Outstanding warrants If you know you are wanted for something big and the blue lights come on behind you, you have no choice, RUN! No fake ID will pass a cop since they can look up the DL# via radio or computer. The only exception is if the situation is totally hopeless and you might die escaping. In this case, Evasion On Foot Disappearing If you're planning to run and have any time at all to prepare, here's some tips that can help you disappear. First, destroy any and all photographs of yourself that you can get your hands on, especially if they're recent. Destroy all your credit cards and carry only cash. Anything with a magnetic strip will lead your pursuers right to you as soon as it's used. Don't take any chances -- cut them up to avoid being tempted to use them when you're cold and hungry. Burn or discard as much of your clothing as you can. Throw the clothes into trash cans that are emptied frequently, such as those found at airport terminals. Obtain new clothing that is as normal and boring as possible, you don't want to rouse a cop's suspicion. don't forget to totally wipe your social media as well. Down a manhole If you are in an urban area and have the tools to do the job go really underground, the piggies will take forever to try looking there. A piece of 5mm cord with two short pieces of rebar tied at the ends to make little drop in T's, if you are strong enough you can lift the lid into a underworld of escape. Infrared cameras and helicopters Infrared, thermal, or FLIR has a mythical reputation for being something like x-ray vision. For all of the hype it can only determine if a room is heated not that it is occupied, infrared cannot get the outline of a person through walls. It is best to hide behind solid objects but even an umbrella can be enough to block the infrared radiating from your body. Campfires, car engines, and heated structures show up as light areas as do people making them contrast against the cooler background. Trees can help break up your IR signature but only very thick cover can really conceal you. A great place to hide from IR is under a car, inside a dumpster, or inside a building or rock ledge, as long as the helo has not seen you you are cool. Metals are very good at reflecting IR. Even a sheet of aluminium foil will block an infrared camera, so keep your eyes open for metallic cover if you think such devices are being used. Aluminium foil attached to clothing will not work as it'll merely get warm and become the emitter itself. Depending on population density, you may be able to change your appearance well before the chopper spots you. At that point every single pedestrian is a suspect. A comrade of ours escaped an all out pursuit with two dog teams, a dozen cruisers, and chopper and satellite surveillance support... all by hopping on a bike an taking a calm bike ride down some back neighborhood roads. The chopper was looking for a pedestrian wearing all black. His jacket appeared white since he'd turned it inside out. Just remember, don't look like the guy they're looking for, and they'll pass right over. New tech like millimeter-wave radar may make it possible to see through a wall but for now the price is very high, and the device is not very portable. Unless you've really pissed off CorpGov, and they know about where you are, it's unlikely that they'll employ it against you. Pursuit Running from pigs is one of the scariest things you can do because the stakes are high. If you're caught, you could get some serious jail time by making Sgt. Barney get some running exercise. Mind you, many local cops are not muscle machines and have a difficulty running long distances. If you're in a situation (such as protests) where you may get nabbed, scout the area out for good hiding places. If the time comes for a jog with the pigs, try to avoid them by making as many sharp turns as possible. When you feel you have gotten a good deal away from them, hide for a bit and take a back way home. Know your limits in advance and it would be prudent to always have a plan of action, even if it's vague, for escape in any situation that may require it. See Parkour#Emergency_Use. If you escape through very muddy/swampy areas of woods, stepping on the bases of the grasses growing will provide you a surface that doesn't sink. Police dogs * K-9 dogs can be evaded in many ways. If you are being followed by police dogs, try to cross a paved road or body of moving water, such as a stream or river (Don't drown! Be careful about undercurrents!) Enter the stream and walk downstream for 100-200 feet, then exit. Since your scent will be washed downstream, the dogs may lose it. The human tracker will help the dog cross and look for signs to start the search again; the further you are downstream from your exit point, the less likely they will notice any. However, police are sometimes posted at bridges to watch for floaters, so be careful. * If you reach a paved road, walk (or run) along its path before re-entering wooded terrain. You won't leave footprints or other traces of your passage on concrete, although dogs will still be able to track you for a while. * Remember that heavily wooded terrain absorbs scent best and will hold it for a long time. A police dog could follow a week's old trail through dense woods, yet our comrades have lost them within 15 minutes after just a bit of crossing suburban roads. * Getting your feet off the ground will help reduce your trail... if you know parkour, you may be able to cross elevated areas not normally accessible to dogs. Hopping on a bicycle or in a car will oftentimes lose a dog. * The faster you're moving and less exposed you are, the less of a trackable trail you leave * Some will incorrectly claim sprinkling some tear gas or pepper behind you will lose the dogs, as it will fill their nasal passages when they sniff it. These dogs are not stupid and will not sniff painful teargas and pepper. * One way to make a dog temporarily lose it's sense of smell is using a cloth soaked with cocaine and an animal's blood. The Danish used this tactic to escape the Nazi police dogs, and it worked for them. * Another more easily improvised distraction is a rotting animal or dog's turd or urine wiped and dragged along the ground on a stick then thrown onto a roof or tree after a few hundred meters might distract a tracking dog, but this may cause the handler to become suspicious and may indicate your presence. Be careful these scents on your foot will be one more aid in tracking you. * Avoid soft ground, mud, or undisturbed plants and grass if possible. This is where the tracker can see your path without needing the dog. Walk gently to leave less track, but don't try walking backwards to confuse your pursuers. A good tracker can tell the difference between normal footprints and prints made by someone walking backward. * Take every reasonable chance to let your escape path take you near outdoor dogs, cats, and farm animals; this distracts the K-9 dog. However, try not to get too close where some of the scent will stick to your feet and aid in scent tracking. * Take care not to leave signs to help the handler track you, he is the lead and just gets help from the dog. * Don't waste time with distractions like walking backwards, distraction paths, etc. The tracker can often figure out if these are fake. * If you get taken down by a fighting dog, like a German Shepherd, don't fight back. Attack dogs are trained to clamp onto your arm and not let go. * Many dogs are trained in German, standing straight like you are a cop and commanding "feitz" (say it like the word feet as in foot with a "tz" on the end) may cause the dog to stop, sit, and await a command or at least stop mauling you. * You can escape from a search dog team, keep moving quickly and try to use pavement or a vehicle to escape. Call one of your brothers or sisters to come grab you before the pigs do. Fences Cyclone type chain-link wire fence should not be too hard to climb over even though it is often topped by barbed or razor wire. Throw a blanket, thick coat, or something else over the sharp parts that you can afford to have destroyed. It is not safe to hang from the top wires as they may not be well attached to the main fence. If you were planning ahead and were able to obtain one, you can cut the stout wires on a cyclone fence with a compound action wire cutter; a mini bolt cutter. If you are in a vehicle reversing over a post at over 20mph should knock the fence over breaking the pipe at its anchor, don't stop until the vehicle is over the fence or you might get stuck, this will allow large groups to pass without doing too much structural damage to the vehicle, inspect afterwards just to be sure. Also see Parkour If you have to cut through a farmers field don't worry too much about electrical fences, they are a usually a low single wire strung about 2-3 feet inside the main barbed fence, they will at worst give you a quick zap. If you see a single or multiple barbed or unbarbed wires attached to electrical insulators and not directly to the poles, especially at on private property, some wacko might just have wired it into the 110 or 220-volt power system and that could easily kill you. Unpunctured rubber boots and gloves are an effective way to thwart the effectiveness of an electrical fence at a secure installation, shorting to the ground may set off an alarm and a security guard might go out and check the wire. Some very secure fences like at national borders or military bases include sound and motion sensors every dozen meters or so and three or four meter strips of sand so that footprints will be left to indicate numbers and direction of travel. In the Wilderness The wilderness is not the escape it once was, airborne infrared equipment makes picking a campfire up against a cool background easy, digging out a cooking hole under a low tree and sleeping under a hut of brush and leaves at least a foot thick should help avoid detection. See Get the Hell Out of Dodge, Backpacking, and Camping for more tips. Wilderness Evasion, published by Paladin Press, is an excellent resource, most of the information in that book can be also be found in the US army sniper and SERE manuals which should be easily found online. Camouflage While Disguise works better in urban and dense suburban areas, as you transition away from there, you may want to employ camouflage in thinner suburbs, rural, and wooded areas. The simple "woodland" camo, consisting of fairly randomly shaped green/khaki colours, can help you be overlooked by an enemy. The different colours have the psychological effect of making your body be recognized as a cluster of objects (leaves for example) as opposed to a single unit (you). This means it'll take longer to notice you out of the corner of one's eye, even in plain sight. If a park or unmowed lawn is available, lying down in tall grass, or behind (or even between) bushes will make you almost unnoticeable. On the more extreme end are ghille suits, which tend to be very suspicious looking and unpleasant in warm climates. They take the idea of breaking up your appearance to a whole new level. Not only are you covered in a number of individually moving objects, you also destroy your outline, meaning you do not look "human" anymore. There have been reports of snipers being stepped on by a search party, due to the quality of their camo. Ghille suits are expensive when purchased manufactured professionally, but you can make your own. Get some netting, and clothing to build on top of. You will also need some burlap strips approximately .5-1.5" wide and anywhere from 4-12" long, try shredding a burlap sack. Sew the netting to the clothing you have, and tie or zip tie burlap onto it, being sure to create thorough coverage. You can later add material from your environment to the netting, making yourself appear to be part of the woods. Put lighter colours in regularly shaded areas of your body. Keep the materials you use as consistent as possible throughout your suit: branches on your head and leaves on your body creates high contrast and gets you spotted. If you have intentions of crawling around a lot (insurgent sniper?) you will want to add padding to the underside of the suit instead of heavy burlap. Leather works well, but any strong fabric could be layered and used. For example, polyester, despite it's disadvantages with scent absorption, is flexible but strong enough to help. Move when the wind blows and movement is picked up everywhere by the human eye. You will thus appear a part of the environment while making progress. If you are going to be shooting, you'll also want a flash suppressor and similar devices to prevent giving away your position. You'll have to do some thinking to figure out where you're not expected to be by the enemy. The best camouflage in a forest is dressing like a tree. Water Crossing Take your pack off and be ready to ditch it if it sinks, float down stream for up to fifteen minutes if the cops know you are in the water but before a boat or dive team can be called in, exit in what looks like a safe area like rocks where you won't leave much lasting sign, or near a road but be careful about cars. Warm up, dry off, change your clothing if you need to. In a Building If you have had the chance to prepare a tunnel to access the storm sewer system, another friendly house, a shed on the property, or to other underground structures, it could save your life. Keep in mind most walls in America are only drywall and can quietly be cut through or quickly kicked through, to avoid injury tap for the studs and cut/kick between, be careful of electrical wiring. Residential Homes If you are in a group that has been accused of being dangerous or worse somehow called cop killers like the Black Panthers were you can expect many cops to shoot first and arrest later. For many sworn law officers, there seems to be a quiet code of ethics that requires a field execution of anyone suspected of killing one of their own to protect their thin blue line. Since we choose to take the cowards way out and escape we need to devise ways to escape when SWAT assassin teams appear. One of the most effective ways to survive an attempted assassination by a large counterinsurgency team is to have a very secret escape tunnel. Somehow connecting to the sewer or other utility tunnels might also work but the cops may have thought of this too. The entry of the tunnel must be hidden or covered so as to delay its discovery. Most soil is unsafe to tunnel in without reinforcing, wooden liners are required every few feet and reinforced cement or other lining will strengthen the walls reducing the danger of collapse. To be most effective there needs to be a system of non-lethal security devices designed to put the assassination team on the defensive and slow them down. Command or trip fired flash bang devices or riot control rounds might cause the team to withdraw and regroup buying you time to get out. A skateboard and ropes or electrical cart on rails will speed removing dirt during digging and will also aid your quick escape in a narrow tunnel. Of course, the survival tunnel must be one of the best-kept secret possibly only known and dug by the likely assassination targets to prevent it being disclosed and compromised by the police. Alternatives to tunnelling to a safe area may to just tunnel to another house or shed, hiding in place in a false wall, or even disguise and false ID denying the cops a sure target. Another way to be safe is to be sure there are many witnesses should an attempted assassination happen. If you need to buy some time, a number of active devices could be built to make those who invade your home or squat "shit brix". A tesla coil running off of a SLA battery can appear very threatening without actually doing much. Odds are they'll start shooting at it, which may not be effective until a significant portion of the device is destroyed; due to it's high voltage nature. An airsoft or paintball gun operated by an arduino and a PIR or similar sensor (~$30-50 depending on your procurement abilities) will not significantly hurt anybody, but will also require them to pause to destroy the device before moving forwards. Make sure all devices run on battery power so that killing the mains power won't help. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) ducts are now mostly confined to hanging above a false panel ceiling, and these usually won't take the weight of a human. Even the in ones that could, the noise involved with you getting up there would be a dead giveaway. If you can find a strong enough structure to support you above a hung ceiling it could be a temporary hiding spot. Elevators Elevator shafts can usually be accessed from inside the elevator car, but this often requires tools. Elevator doors are locked when closed but they can sometimes be unlocked with a proper tool through the small hole in the front of the outer door. If you have the chance, get a firefighter key, this should command all of the elevators in the city and give you exclusive emergency control. Fire System Pulling the fire alarm or lighting a flame under a smoke detector or two may activate the safety override system, thus unlocking the exits, although this might also shut down the elevators for users who don't have a firefighter key. Rope Escape If you are really trapped and the police are advancing up the building you have a few options: get to another nearby building, surrender, or hide. Getting to another building is VERY dangerous, if you need out bad enough a grapple hook to a window or parapet, or friends on the other structure can secure the other end, pull the line tight with a hauling system if you brought a few extra carabiners and have the time, then zip line across and cut the line. If escaping after direct action evacuating with the building occupants might be possible if your team were to wear business dress under their jumpsuits and masks. Once you get out fake cellular calls or quiet tears where you can even cover your eyes and nose with a tissue, whatever makes you look normal but unable to be questioned, as you slink away. If there are not too many police outside it is a better idea to break out a window and attempt a fast rappel to the ground, a distraction and smoke are good for making this work. This also works well if police have not yet shown up. Rappelling from a roof is often very feasible if you can conceal a harness and rope on your person. Rooftops offer a number of large heavy air conditioning units and such. Do not rappel from satellite dishes and similar small antennas. Who knows, some well-applied rope work could let you draw some huge graffiti 30' off the ground... imagine the possibilities. See Tree sitting BASE Parachute Much mention was made after 9-11 of using a parachute to escape from a building, but if the police are present a BASE jump would almost surely be seen and followed. Unless you are jumping into the bed of a pickup truck get-away car chances are slim for escape. If you know what you're doing, however, a BASE jump (perhaps with a slogan on your parachute) could be a spectacular publicity stunt at the conclusion of a protest, provided you haven't broken too many laws getting to the jump-off point. Insiders An insider who takes a job as a janitor or worker in the physical plant might get access to most of the tools and keys to access or override useful parts of a building. In a car Car pursuits are very dangerous and risky, even if you're an experienced driver. Avoid them at ALL costs. The chances of avoiding capture while driving are slim enough that it should only be used as a last resort. Chances are, you, another driver, or a pig will get banged up real bad. If you get banged up, there is no recourse. If a pig or a driver gets hurt, the prosecutor will lay his wrath upon you. If you're on a clear road, just gun the vehicle to full speed. If speeds get too high, the pigs may call off the chase for safety purposes. Beware that if they get a helicopter out, you're fucked. If you have been lucky enough to evade them, drive off in a different rural direction and do one of the following: ID * Ditch the car and get a brother/sister to pick you up, let someone else pick up the car or leave the keys so it will be stolen * Grab a valid license plate (preferably from a willing brother/sister) and swap them out. While cops may be on the look-out for a gray Chevy sedan with license plates WXY-1234, you can throw them off a little by putting a new license plate on...even more so if it's an out of state plate. Smoke Injection of transmission fluid or castor oil into the fuel, intake, or exhaust manifold will produce massive clouds of white smoke. Depending on engine size and fuel system this might bog down the motor or interfere with modern sensors. Large gas guzzling motors of days gone by will come out with shiny clean valves and not much else. Test your smoke system before you need it in a safe rural area, this can potentially wipe out a large road for about a mile per pint of fluid. If running be sure to kill the smoke before making a turn to escape or you will be leaving a follow me trail. * Most smoke bombs and fire extinguishers are not powerful enough to make your car disappear into a cloud of smoke. Oil Slick This is a tricky way to throw off a tail, you might get a pig to wipe out when chasing you into a tight turn but the oil slick might also lead to unintentional accidents which you can be charged for, use your brain. Police "spin stop" This practice, known as a PIT (Precision Immobilization Technique) maneuver by police, is usually used as a last resort by the pigs. They simply find a clear spot of road, then they swerve quickly away and then back striking your rear bumper at an angle or just go for a straight on tap with as low of a closing speed as possible, and 9 times out of 10 you go spinning off the road. Taking defensive driving classes and learning how to steer out of a fish-tail helps, but if you're PITed, you will probably go off the road, often with disastrous consequences. The best way to avoid a PIT is if you see a pig gaining on you real close, mash the accelerator down. The PIT stop is considered police deadly force in some jurisdictions. Spike strips Spike strips are quickly deployable strips of hollow spikes designed to let all of the air from your tires quickly causing loss of control and speed. A cop hides behind a bush or unmarked car and pulls the rope to yank the strip onto the road. Police Bikes Many police departments have policy forbidding pursuit of two wheeled vehicles without helicopter support. This is because of the inherent safety risks to themselves: motorcycles are damn fast, and have relatively very sharp turning radii. What this means for us is that we can break line of sight (and hearing!) on a police vehicle and hide ourselves and our vehicle. By the time the heli is out, you have disappeared. Helicopters If you haven't been able to get out of sight and the helicopter's overhead, head for the nearest airport, they won't be able to follow you into restricted air space. Resistance Cuffs * If you can get a hold of or buy a cuff key, duct tape, wire, or sew the key to the inside of your pant's waistband or belt, a loop of heavy carpet thread is a good lanyard in case you drop the key during unlocking. When the cop is not watching you can get the key and unlock yourself or a friend. Remember to watch the cop and see if he pin locks the cuffs, use the pin on the top of the key to unlock the key hole, this pin hole is often on the opposite side or at the bottom of the cuff. A scissors type multitool with a thread loop in your back pocket or hidden behind your belt can cut flex cuffs with a little effort and time, help a friend then let them free you. Squad Cars Squad cars have the "child safe" back doors that lock and often have no inside handles. If there are no bars the back window might be kicked out if the cop gives you enough time, the side windows are often lexan which is almost unbreakable. School and Charter Buses The police may hire charter or school buses to transport large groups of dissidents, sometimes the windows can be opened and some people may be able to jump as the bus slows down, there is likely not enough cops on board to stop everyone if there is a real effort to make a break (but look out for police escorts). Holding cell Nobody in the holding cell is your friend, never talk about your case in the holding cell, many have audio or video monitoring. Also realize that some police departments either have undercover pigs or "snitches" locked up in there to try and extract information from people. Questioning The job of a cop who questions you is not to get you off easy or help you it is singularly to get a confession or evidence to convict. You are playing a game with him and he wants to win big and cheer as his buddies slap him on the back for a good conviction. The cops will lie, cheat, and scare you to get the big win and scratch another "kill" mark onto their desk. One of the most difficult interrogators is the sweet, caring, and even maternal female interrogator brought in after a rough session with a brute type don't fall for this trick. If you were in on a direct action alone shut your mouth don't lie or shift blame no matter how nice or cool the cop seems, he wants to win the game. If there is no evidence you will walk free unless you give them something to work with, this includes lying. If you were in an action that really requires more than one person only work with people you have known for a very long time, preferably since you were early teen or preteen. Even well-known friends can be co-opted if they get busted and are quietly offered a deal from the DA to turn on the cause so be careful. When interrogated as a group you will always be separated for questioning and part of the way into the questions someone will come in speak to your cop and you will be informed that your friend narced out. If your friend kept to the rules of Security Culture which you must believe in like a religion the cops are playing you against him. You will be offered a better deal if you also confess. This deal the cops offer is a scam they likely were going to have to release you both but you confession just guaranteed an easy conviction and jail time for both of you. Fear and shame are the main tools of an interrogator, torture is only useful for making a person docile and afraid to run or fight, it is rarely used even by the military for questioning. the questioner will try to have as much information about you as possible before he begins, personal websites like facebook.com, prior arrests, and statements or video from the event will be used to try to paint a picture of you and your personality. With your personality type and motivations established the pigs try to find the lever they need to control you and exploit it. Worst case is if they have power over your partner, many people break when their partner is threatened. Exposure of shameful information is one lever, outing a deep closet homosexual, planting evidence, or revealing financial malfeasance are good levers to control a prisoner with. every effort will be made to keep you in a state of fear, good cop bad cop, threats against friends, threats of long sentence, these are all meant to keep the questioner as the powerful party, keep in mind they are nothing but sad little piggies with no life, pity them, fight the losers!! Use techniques learned from POW's and POW training to fight your captors. The US government is known to use SERE school instructors and tactics to interrogate alleged terrorist prisoners. Never give the interrogator clues to work from, clues like being thirsty, hungry or how long it has been since you have heard from your partner or family are all levers against you. When answering a question wear your poker face show nothing through facial expressions or body language, try to ignore the questioning with distracting thoughts. One technique in Gitmo type detention camps is subjecting prisoners to sensory deprivation including confinement in small spaces for long periods with exposure to extreme hot or cold temperatures, loud music and noise, sexual embarrassment and humiliation, and the "religious dilemma" like at abu-garib where a Koran was shredded into a toilet. The job of your captors is to generate a state of massive uncertainty, prisoners are hooded, their sleep patterns are disrupted, they are starved for extended periods, stripped naked, etc. If a prisoner is trying to avoid revealing secrets to interrogators, he is less likely to succeed if he has been deprived of sleep or is struggling to avoid intense pain. Sexual humiliation and ridicule, where naked prisoners have women laugh at the size of the men's genitalia or lack of masculine appearance is reported to be part of military interrogation training. These trained soldiers come home often to become cops and prison guards. Depending on what you have been taken in for you might find yourself facing a "anti-terror" investigator with sweeping powers. Don't let the head games get to you, remember that these are all levers to get you to break, they fight for the power of money, but you fight for freedom and human rights. Court Get a lawyer, make all the phone calls you need. Don't worry, the one phone call thing is from the 1940's. (In Europe though, you still can make only one phone call, so think well about who you call.) Don't make any deals and find a lawyer willing to go to trial. If you need ask for a public defender, make sure she is willing to fight, most lawyers want to make a deal and avoid a trial. If you cut a deal you will have a record for life, not good for employment or later interaction with the law. Prison If you somehow ended up getting well framed or caught working for the cause (and hopefully not for shoplifting) you will be sent to one of the highly profitable prison corporations. Here they will not really try to reeducate you, the purpose is to store the undesirable people that can't legally be executed and maybe get some sub minimum wage labour. Prison is just like high school except you don't get to go home at the end of the day. * Do not act defeated or scared. Many of these guys are master criminals and feed off of fear and helplessness. * Keep your yap shut as much as possible until you know the institution or the people well. Prisoners who are higher on the "food chain" don't appreciate big-mouthed newbies. * If you haven't started smoking, prison is not the time to do it, smoke just enough in front of guards so you will be allowed to buy. If the institution permits smoking, cigarettes are used as open currency. If you piss off somebody, you can usually pay them off with smokes, so keep a stash around. Any penal institution is a real drag. The boredom, mixed with a group of angry people of the same sex along with bad food makes life suck. If you've been there for a week or 10 years, you will hate being ordered around. There is no real way to truly deal with this...they design prisons to suck for a reason, so you won't return. Every male penal institution is like this in some way, but there will ALWAYS be a hierarchy of prisoners. Because of the higher incarceration rates of male Revolutionaries, most of this article (unless otherwise noted) will be about male institutions. Arrival When you arrive remember to keep your dignity and to shut your mouth. Don't ever accept any favours until you know the rules of repayment. Shut your mouth about radical politics, try to blend in. Try to act the strong silent part don't embarrass people, these small egos are easily threatened, and that can lead to violence. When you arrive in prison, everyone will want something from you. Don't be an asshole, but make sure they know that the answer is no. You're far too irrational, sad and shaken up to make any deals at this point. Protection This is a hard issue for any white leftist going to prison. For African, Latino and even Indigenous people, there are ready made gangs to offer you protection. This is not to say they are right (They aren't. Even gangs like the Black Gurellia Faction or La Raza are now drug dealing scum with affiliates on the outside) but not being stabbed is much better than being stabbed. However, being a white leftist leaves one with few, if any options. The two main white prison gangs, the Aryan Brotherhood and the Nazi Low Riders are hardcore reactionary scum and will not let anyone who claims to be left of Mussolini in. If you point out that they regularly deal with people of colour and betray their racist ideals, you will find yourself bleeding out in a dark corner. Anyone who has been to prison will not fault you for finding protection inside, just be sure to not believe their bullshit totally. This is the hardest choice you will ever make, but remember that loners in prison are dead and gangsters might not live much longer. Respect Respect is the most important thing to cultivate at prison. Do not disrespect other inmates unless you fancy a shanking. It is hard to balance respecting inmates without being too submissive, watch the other inmates and you can figure it out. It also helps to get into regular weightlifting, as being big and strong will earn you respect among the inmates, as will refusing to co-operate with cops and guards, doing them favours and standing up for yourself when disrespected. If you allow another inmate to disrespect you and do nothing, any respect you might have had will evaporate. Rape Homosexual rape is not a big a problem, just don't act submissive. If you are gay, stay celibate. Prison homosexuality is a different from outside gay culture, many inmates are dominator abusers. Women should avoid eye and physical contact with any male guard and always keep her body covered (this might help a little) as guards are famous for raping inmates with no disciplinary consequences, anything could set them off. Guards The guards are not your friends, prison guards are mostly cop dropouts, they don't like the inmates, they will play head games with them to feed their own small ego. If you get too tight with the guards the inmates may feel threatened, after a few months you will have a core of fair-weather friends among the inmates as long as you don't act like a narc. If you do narc out other inmates, especially for favours from the guards, expect a shank in the kidney. Depression Do everything you can to keep from getting depressed, working out is a good way to keep up, reading and composing are excellent ways to feel productive. If you do get depressed it will make you an easy target for prison thugs inmate and guard alike, even if you are depressed use every bit of acting skill to fake it, sometimes succeeding in faking yourself out will help you get over the bad patches. Study of law and following case law is a great way to spend your time and builds strong intellect. If you put your head to it you might, with prison correspondence school, come out ready to take the bar exam. Exercise is another way. Prisons usually have weights and dip bars, you can run laps in the yard and do sit-ups, push-ups and squats in your cell. Regular exercise helps a lot to keep your mind occupied, and the increases in strength and size will improve your confidence. Work Crew If you go down for minimum security you may be assigned to road work or even forest firefighting crew, these are real work for almost no extra pay, but you do get outside which is good for your sanity. If you get a chance to escape here take it but be aware that the cops have been playing the runaway game for a long time and they have thought about many easy escape plans already. Drugs and weapons Contraband including weapons, drugs, and other goods are difficult to hide. Drugs are a good way to get in trouble and while a knife or other weapon might seem useful, it can screw you in a parole hearing and get you a additional sentence. A strong reputation and avoiding enemies is much more safe and useful than a knife. Parole As a political prisoner you might be passed up for parole several times. Even though you don't feel any hope appear before the committee and act in an reasonable educated matter. This committee may have some hip members in it and if you act with dignity even to the point of admitting a past mistakes they might feel better about letting you go. These tactics likely work in the case of a thuggish crime, thought crimes are much less likely to parole. Solitary If you are really considered dangerous you might get stuck in solitary with nothing in the cell, some prisons will give you a bible and nothing else, take it if it will help you from going nuts. Find something to mentally take you away, but regularly give yourself sanity checks that are based on a mental checklist you make at the beginning of your incarceration. Don't let the guards be your scale for sanity they are most vile sick men and women or will be after a few years of exposure to Prison Inc. Tap Code Prisoners of war devised tap code to communicate through walls when in solitary confinement, it was easier to learn, teach, and remember than morse code, all letters were arranged on a 5x5 grid the first set of taps started with one on top and five on the bottom this was followed by one tap for left and five for the far right c and k are considered the same for spelling. Eye blinks, rake scrapes, or foot taps are all examples of ways to transmit this easy code. A . . B . .. C, K . ... D . .... E . ..... F .. . G .. .. H .. ... I .. .... J .. ..... L ... . M ... .. N ... ... O ... .... P ... ..... Q .... . R .... .. S .... ... T .... .... U .... ..... V ..... . W ..... .. X ..... ... Y ..... .... Z ..... ..... Escaping It will be difficult to explain prison clothes to passers-by if there is a known escape, have normal clothes sent to you while in the joint, maybe you could make something from bedsheets without getting caught, get clothes on the first opportunity. If you really make it out play homeless in a nearby city for a week or two while quietly and legally obtaining supplies, don't contact any friends or try to use a shelter, and then Get the Hell Out of Dodge and get to a non-extraditing country, your time in the US is over. See Radio about prison crystal radio. Kit Spies and prisoners have been carrying escape kits to prison for hundreds of years in the only hiding place a naked man has. Most of these capsules are smooth aluminum or plastic and screw together. Inserted forcefully, or if the capsule comes open, a person could be severely injured. The CIA made such kits for spies, one was a metal capsule shaped .22 gun with a rubber covering, another appears as if they wanted to start a prison metal shop with a 35mm wide monster kit. The second kit contained: * a small pliers/wire cutter/tool handle * two saw blades * metal reamer * flat and round metal file * drill bit * Metal chisel * two knife blades More useful kit contents might be: * LED micro light * Button Compass * Basic Lock Picks * Handcuff Key * Cut Down Standard Bump Keys * Amphetamine Tablets (to stay awake for up to three days during escape) * Rabbit Scent (to throw off search dogs) in a perfume sample vial * Local Cash If you try smuggle this kit into prison you are likely to get caught in possession of escape tools, most prisons do a rectal check on arrival and regular cell checks will probably get the kit before you have a chance to use it. It takes a lot of suspicious activity in the bathroom to keep a kit "hidden" all the time. At this time it is not normal to x-ray prisoners on arrival. Cutting Metal CAUTION!! This Uses High Voltage and is Dangerous If you really have a good reason to believe cutting bars will get you free, use your diode that you have scrounged to make the AC power in the wall into metal cutting DC. With your length of power cord and a diode on one side connect a piece of junk metal on one side and the other pole to your bar (or other metal to cut) add urine or salty water or liquid in a puddle and set your electrode as far as possible from the bar. Watch for bubbles don't let the reaction go to fast it will boil away your water or burn out the wire or diode. If you need a resistor to keep voltage down use some pencil lead or a long puddle of urine or salt water. Stop and make sure you are cutting the bars and not your scrap. CAUTION!! This Uses High Voltage and is Dangerous Sodium Chlorate CAUTION!! This Uses High Voltage and is Dangerous If you can get some pencil lead, a diode, a jar (non conductive), and access to AC power you can make an oxidizer that you can use to make a kind of gunpowder or explosive. start electrolysis with the pencil leads as your electrodes use a diode in-line to one lead to make the AC power into useful DC. Keep adding clean water when levels drop never let the electrodes get deep enough that the wire is in the water. The salt after 64 hours should be converted to more then 50% sodium chlorate which will be filtered through a paper cone with the filter discarded, the liquid is dried and the resulting powder mixed with sugar or flour as an incendiary or if confined an explosive. CAUTION!! The best use for this would be making some sort of tear gas bomb from sugar, cayenne pepper, and sodium chlorate to cover your escape. Blasting or gunpowder in prison could be the stupidest thing you could make unless using it to escape were a sure thing. With the number of guards available the noise of blasting would lock the whole prison down for weeks and would be useless as a distraction. Contacts * LIBERTY 21 Tabbard St, London, SE1 4LA (020 7403 3888) * RELEASE - 388 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT (020 7603 8654) * ALF Prisoner Support Group - BCM 1160, London, WC1N 3XX * EARTH Liberation Prisoners - BM HEAL, London, WC1N 3XX * VEGAN PRISONER Support Group – P0 Box 194, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3HD (0181 292 8325) * London ABC - 27 Gloucester St, London WC1N 3XX * CONVICTION PO Box 522, Sheffield, S1 3FF * PAGAN FEDERATION - BM Box 7Q97, London, WC1N 3XX * English Collective of Prostitutes P0 Box 287, London, NW6 5QU * Sexual Freedom Coalition - PO Box 4ZB, London, WiA 4ZB * National Prisoners Movement BMPROP, London, WC1N 3XX (020 8542 3744) * WOMEN in Prison - do Women's Environmental Network (6171 247 3327) * PEACE Prisoners Support - do 16 Sholebrook Avenue, Leeds, L57 3HB